Hospital patient admission process flowchart
This flowchart shows how a hospital handles a patient from arrival to either admission or a prescription. It includes the two key decisions, **Emergency?** and **Needs admission?**, and ends with an **inpatient record** for admitted patients. It suits hospital administrators, healthcare students and anyone documenting a front-desk process.
Example: Flowchart for hospital patient admission: click to open it in the editor and change it.
Steps and decisions in order
- Patient arrives and is registered at reception.
- Emergency? Yes: the patient is sent to the ER and goes straight to bed allocation.
- No: the patient has a doctor consultation.
- Needs admission? Yes: a bed is allocated. No: the doctor gives a prescription and the visit ends.
- For admitted patients, an inpatient record is created (drawn as a data store), then the flow ends.
Why the shapes matter
- Rounded boxes mark the start (Patient arrives) and the End.
- Diamonds are the two decisions, each with a Yes and a No branch.
- The Create inpatient record step is a data store, because it writes to the hospital's records.
How to adapt it for your hospital
- Add insurance or payment verification after registration.
- Add a bed available? decision with a waiting or transfer path.
- Turn it into a swimlane with reception, ER, doctor and ward lanes to show who owns each step.
Tip: Emergency patients skip the consultation step here. If your hospital triages them first, add a triage step on the Yes branch.
Frequently asked questions
What is the patient admission process?
Registration, assessment (emergency or a doctor consultation), the decision to admit, bed allocation and creating the inpatient record.
How are emergency patients handled in this flowchart?
They are sent to the ER and go directly to bed allocation, skipping the normal consultation.
What happens if the patient does not need admission?
The doctor gives a prescription and the visit ends as an outpatient visit.
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